Interstellaria

$28,805

1,773

GET YOUR COPY THROUGH PAYPAL!

HELP INTERSTELLARIA GET ON STEAM! CLICK THE GREENLIGHT BUTTON AND VOTE FOR US!

All backers receiving a DRM-Free copy will also receive a steam key if we are successful on greenlight!

"I love the look of the pixel art" - Rock, Paper, Shotgun

"Um... yes please!" -Destructoid

" how can you not love a game that lets you explore space freely?" - Indiestatik

"There’s something about this game concept that just clicks for me" - pockettactics

After generations of war a tenuous peace has fallen over the galaxy. For the first time an era of trade and diplomacy reigns. Human corporations, like Star-Ex, have risen to the forefront of human expansion. The universe is a dangerous place, and for those with courage the trade off is simple - they provide the ship, you seek out the profits!

In Interstellaria you command a crew of eager explorers. Combat, trade, and diplomacy is handled by giving your crew commands. Survival means watching out for hull leaks, defeating hostile invaders, and destroying enemy vessels. You have to balance pushing your crew to learn new skills, while also keeping them fed and rested. In addition, at any time you can take complete control of the captain and adventure planet side to collect important artifacts, ship resources, and valuable data.

Interstellaria is a 2d space SIM/RPG/Sandbox game by Coldrice Games LLC created in the same vein as the best space exploration games of the past. Inspired heavily by games like Starflight or Star Control, Interstellaria is all about allowing the player freely explore space. Every star has something interesting to see, and every planet has it’s own unique feel. In addition, each alien race follows its own culture and moral values.

-SETTING: Take control of a starship in a wild and dangerous universe. Pirates, hostile alien forces, rebel factions, asteroid fields, and strange anomalies threaten the lives of each and every starship. Every pocket of space has its own dangers and rewards, such as unlocking new areas of space, alien races eager to join your crew, or even advanced weaponry not available elsewhere.

-STORY: The setting and the mechanics allows for you to drive the plot! There are several missions to take part in, a main plot to unravel, or if you so choose ignore the needs of others and simply build your own fortune.

-EXPLORATION: Every location on the starmap has its own event or challenge. You could face a moral scenario near a dying star, or be tasked to apprehend an alien outlaw. Sometimes you'll be given the opportunity to scavenge a derelict space station, or find yourself shooting your way out of a hostile encounter.

-CREW LIFE: Your crewman die, so be careful! Permadeth is a constant challenge in Interstellaria. In addition to leveling skills to maximize your ship’s abilities, you must also make sure the crew eat, sleep, and entertain themselves. When managing your crew the wrong choice will wipe out that max level crewman, or worse... wipe out your entire ship!

-CONSTANT PROGRESS: Interstellaria is all about progress. You can level up your crewmen in the various stations on board. You can purchase bigger and more powerful ships, and you can swap out guns to pick the ones you like best. Each time you play you make your ship your own!

Defending your vessel is a key part of surviving space. The player must balance power, crew, and life support in order to be the most successful. As you progress so do your crewmen, making them incredibly valuable in a combat situation. A high level crewman can target specific points of an enemy vessel, while a novice can only aim in the enemies general direction. Be warned - once the shields go down the enemy can invade your ship as well!

ENERGY - players must balance the energy of their ship between the engines, life support, systems, and weapons. Energy is limited and usage is dynamic!

STATIONS - The crew boost the power of the ship through their stats, as well as the function of the station. Having a special engineering station will boost repair rates and ship speed. Having a max level engineer at that station also boosts ship energy output. Stations can be powered, and they can be damaged!

SCANNING - Enemies must be scanned down to be fired upon. In addition, having high level scanning stations and high level scanners will boost the loot from wrecked ships. Be careful! Scanning a ship is a very hostile maneuver, and some friendly vessels will fire if they feel threatened.

LIFE SUPPORT - The oxygen cycles through the ship room by room. A hull leak in any given room can quickly kill a crewmen. In addition, large numbers of leaks will cut into the oxygen cycle and cause other rooms to lose their life support as well.

INVASION - Be warned, several hostile ships have been known to launch invasion pods. This allows them the ability to board your vessel and kill your crew. The act of forcefully boarding a ship is illegal!

A unique side of Interstellaria is the ability to also go planet side. Your captain takes on all risks! Some planets will challenge his mind with unique puzzles and hazardous terrain. Other planets can only be tamed at the point of a gun. The captain can equip armor and unique alien weapons he discovers along the way. In addition to valuable loot, some alien worlds will unlock their vessels for your purchase!

HAND CRAFTED WORLDS - each world is designed by hand. From sketch, to art, to testing, to completion. The goal is to create unique challenges and memorable encounters. The environments all have their own unique appearance. Coupling the beautiful art with the amazing sounds of Chipzel, planets are really fun to explore.

UNIQUE ENCOUNTERS - Each world has it’s own special enemies and allies. You might travel to a bright red lava planet in Kursha space to discover rock-spiders crawling towards you, or travel to the gaseous world in Human space to chat with human like fungoids.

SPECIAL ITEMS AND GEAR - The further you travel from human space the more diverse the gear becomes! In addition to finding powerful artifacts to upgrade your ship, there is a plethora of equipment for your crew! Neon lazer tubes, backpack rail guns, chitin chest armor, bio-neural helmet… you can upgrade your captain to overcome any challenge! In addition, some area’s of larger planets aren’t accessible until you come back with upgraded equipment.

In pre-alpha phase, Interstellaria currently features the human components of the game. Some minor alien technology is available, but mostly for debugging/testing purposes. As of now the game sits in closed alpha, but by pledging you can also be invited to our alpha phase starting January 1st!

The current build has been designed to slide all art/code/mechanics seamlessly into the final game. This should shave several months off development time. The hope is for a late 2014 release, but of course Interstellaria will only be released when it feels both satisfying and fun!

The best part is by offering alpha/beta access to the game we can also get valuable input by players just like you. Often times games ship with features that were well intentioned, but boring or not well thought out. By having people test features as they are developed we can ensure that we come up with something that is really fun!

The game demands large amounts of content just like all the space games of yesteryear. To complete that amount of content within a reasonable timeframe would be difficult. The game would see much of content cut to provide a polished, but smaller, game. The money isn't being raised for anything but to help make Interstellaria the best game it can be! Any money earned would go towards:

-Musician: The biggest, and in some ways most important, expense. A
professional artists helps to bring life to the game. The sounds, music,
and ambiance can't be replaced! Chipzel brings her considerable talent to the project and really brings the game to life.

-Additional artist: It's easy for me to work on this project for free for the rest of my life. I'm passionate about it. In order to create an exciting and diverse universe I will need help, and not everyone can work for free! With the aid of additional artist I can design/implement more worlds, enemies, and equipment

-Operation costs: Owning a company, paying fees, and supporting contract artists/musicians adds up. A good portion of funds will go towards these costs as well as important software licenses. In addition, time I personally take off to ensure the game is complete means funds are neccessary to support that time.

- Testers: the final portion of the funds goes towards testers, debuggers, but mostly a professional programmer to keep the game running smooth! I would rather put my money towards improving the game than anything else!

COLDRICE - PROGRAMMING/ART

Coldrice (Jon King) is a programmer/pixel art faring from Washington State, USA. A lover of pixel art, his goal is to make pixels that are easy to fall in love with. In addition, he doubles as the lead programmer with skills in Unity, as well as mobile platforms. Coldrice is the main developer for Interstellaria and owner of Coldrice Games LLC. He is committed to bringing the game to players no matter what. He would love to talk to you (yes you!) on twitter: https://twitter.com/ColdRice_Dev

CHIPZEL - MUSIC

Chipzel (Niamh Houston) is an incredibly skilled indie chiptune artist from Ireland. Her recent album, Spectra, sets the bar for all other chiptune artists in terms of quality and entertainment value. Using genuine 8bit sound via Gameboy combined with modern tools she produces the perfect sound for a game like Interstellaria - hard beats, vibrant sound, and the electronic pulse of space.

Illya King is an Indie comic book artist faring from Washington State, USA. In addition to his skills as an artist, he also has a great sense of humor as seen in his various works. You can spot his artwork, as well as several concept art images for Interstellaria, here at his portfolio site.

Risks and challenges

First Risk - Failure to receive funding. It became really obvious very early on that this game would need a lot of support Without funding, it would be very difficult to complete the project. The game will end up being much smaller due to the limited amount of content I could create alone. In addition, we would lose the awesome soundtrack! I would try and continue to work on the project, but the release date would also slip further away. With bitcrobes, my first "larger" project I was able to turn around the game a lot quicker with the support I received. Development under poor equipment was greatly hindered until that point. I know that kickstarter will be the key to success in Interstellaria.

Second Risk - Development delays. It happens. We've all seen it. My plan is that by offering alpha/beta access at low tiers it'll allow those who put their energy into this game the chance to play it regardless of delays. In addition, all testing feedback only helps to keep development running smoothly!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $30 or more
About $30

ALPHA TESTER + BETA TESTER + DIGITAL ART BOOK + DRM-FREE COPY! Participate in the Alpha! Your testing and feedback will go mold the mechanics of the game! You also get to test the content in the beta! It's like you're part of the team! Special "Full Tester" title, and receive a DRM-Free copy of the game.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $74 or more
About $74

ALL DIGITAL TIER! SPECIAL IN GAME STAR SHIP + SPECIAL QUEST + DIGITAL PROPAGANDA PDF + OST + ALPHA/BETA ACCESS + DIGITAL ART BOOK + 2x DRM FREE COPIES! Alternative to our 75 dollar tier for our international friends. You receive the special ship quest, the OST, the alpha/beta, the two DRM-Free copies, AND we'll send you the posters in PDF format for easy printing!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $75 or more
About $75

SPECIAL IN GAME STAR SHIP + SPECIAL QUEST + PROPAGANDA POSTER + OST + ALPHA/BETA ACCESS + DIGITAL ART BOOK + 2x DRM FREE COPIES! In addition to the above rewards, you are able to unlock a special quest resulting in a very special alien star ship. We'll putting up poster designs every week, and when it's all done you decide your favorite to take home!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $100 or more
About $100

SPECIAL SHIP SCHEMATIC CUTAWAY + IN GAME STARSHIP/QUEST + OST + 2 UNIQUE PROPAGANDA POSTERS + ALPHA/BETA ACCESS + DIGITAL ART BOOK + 3x DRM FREE COPIES! In addition to the previous rewards, you also receive a starship schematic with a special clear animation cell overlay, overlay showing the outer portion of frigate class starship, the schematic showing the technical cutaway view! These cutaway cells are THIS TIER ONLY! You also receive a third copy for your friends!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $200 or more
About $200

CRAFT YOUR OWN NPC! Have a cool idea for an enemy? Let's make it happen. Would love to put yourself in game as an alien blob who gives quests? We're all for it! Design your own special NPC and it's in game. The best part? you get EVERYTHING from the $75 tier. We've also thrown in a second unique propaganda poster!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $500 or more
About $500

CREATE A PLANET! Come up with a look of the planet, the enemy which inhabit it, and it's special power ups. It all will be in game! Participate in a special developer meeting/live stream to go over specifics! In addition, receive all items from $74 ALL DIGITAL tier + an extra poster pdf AND receive a fourth copy of the game for your long lost relatives!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $1,000 or more
About $1,000

CREATE A QUEST CHAIN! Come up with a series of planets, enemies, and bosses. Participate in a series of developer meetings/live streams to go over specifics. In addition, receive all items from the $74 ALL DIGITAL tier + an additional poster pdf AND receive two additional copies (5 copies total!) for you, your friends, your uncle, your uncles friend, and his friend too!